13/03/2018 Beyond 100 Days

You're watching

Beyond One Hundred Days.

Fired in a tweet -

the US Secretary of State didn't

know he was out of a job

until he read it on Twitter.

His replacement is Mike Pompeo -

the hawkish head of the CIA.

How does this change

America's foreign relations?

Rex tiller sovereign said the

president called him after the news

broke.

Rex and I have been talking

about this for a long time.

We got along actually quite well,

but we disagreed on things.

America's new top diplomat

is tougher on Russia

than the President,

but shares his views

on the Iran nuclear deal.

In his place, the CIA gets

it's first ever female

director, Gina Haspel.

Also on the programme:

The poisoning in Salisbury "sounds

like the Russians" says

Donald Trump, but can Britain count

on its closest allies?

It is a book where your express your

feelings about each day you have.

And the seven-year-old,

who lost his mother to cancer,

who is now helping others

through his words and pictures.

Get in touch with us using the

hashtag 'Beyond-One-Hundred-Days'.

Hello and welcome -

I'm Katty Kay in Washington

and Christian Fraser is in London.

On a very busy day in Washington,

we have another reminder that things

are rarely smooth in this White

House.

No sooner had the President

fired his Secretary of State,

than conflicting reports emerged

of whether Rex Tillerson even knew

he was being sacked.

Whether he did or he didn't,

it is a story with enormous foreign

policy implications for both

allies and adversaries.

Replacing Rex Tillerson

as America's top diplomat

is the head of the CIA, Mike Pompeo.

And in his place Gina Haspel,

a 30-year veteran at the CIA

and the first woman to head

the agency.

Pompeo takes a hardline

on Iran and North Korea

and would appear to be more in synch

with the President

than his predecessor.

Here's Mr Tillerson

a few moments ago.

I received a call today

from the President

of the United States

a

little after noon time

from Air Force One

and I've also spoken

to

White House chief of

staff, Kelly, to ensure

we have clarity as to

the

days ahead.

My commission as Secretary

of State will terminate at

midnight March 31st.

We all have the experience of being

fired and that is a bad way to go.

The BBC's North America Editor Jon

Sopel has more on what led

to today's dismissal.

Rex Tillerson was flying back to

Washington from a trip to Africa

when the normally buttoned up

Secretary of State cut loose with

journalists. But unknown to him the

president had signed his death

warrant. Mike Pompeo will become the

new Secretary of State. He will do a

fantastic job. But Tillerson isn't

on Twitter so it fell to his chief

of staff to ring him to inform him.

Only this after the event from the

President.

I wish Rex a lot of good

things, he is he is going to be very

happy. I think Rex will be much

happier now. I appreciate his

service. Tillerson's fate was

probably sealed when he called the

president a moron. A claim that the

Secretary of State didn't exactly

deny.

I'm not going to deal with

petty stuff like this, this what I

don't understand from Washington. I

don't come from this place.

There

was the public undermining of

Secretary of State by the President,

sending family members to do some of

the work that would normally be done

by America's top diplomat and public

naming on Twitter:

The new man will be Mike Pompeo. He

spoke to the BBC century on. On

Russia he acknowledges the threat

they pose.

I have every expectation

they will continue to do that, but

I'm confident America will be able

to have a free and fair election and

is sufficiently robust that the

impact they have on our election

won't be great.

Tillerson and Trump

never gelled. The former CEO of

Exxon was a corporate Titan. Surely

the place with a lowest life

expectancy in the world - being a

member of the Trump administration.

A short time ago, I got reaction

from Democratic Senator Chris Coons.

He sits on the Foreign

Relations Committee.

Senator, Coons you have put out

a statement saying that

Rex Tillerson was never really

supported by the

President when it came

to personnel and trust.

Do you think that that

is why he was fired?

Well, I think both the timing

and the process for the

firing of our Secretary of State

is deeply concerning.

The timing suggests

that the Secretary of State

put out a very tough statement

standing in solidarity with Prime

Minister May and the people of

the United Kingdom in pushing back

against Russia's very aggressive

action and that may well have

contributed to the abruptness and

the very public nature with which

Secretary of State

Tillerson was let go.

It's also been clear for some time

that when it it came to

important issues -

North Korea sometimes

and the issue of Russia -

that Tillerson was not in

lock step with the President and if

you're not in lock step with the

President, as the US Secretary

of State, you can't really be

very effective?

That is right, it is a real

challenge to be a Secretary of

State where your President publicly

cuts you out of major decisions,

hands to his son-in-law, rather

than his chief diplomat critical

initiatives around

the world, or where

the values put forward

in the

President's budget

dramatically undermine

the ability of the Secretary

to lead a successful

diplomatic effort.

The President has now two years

in a row suggested slashing

our Department of State by a third

and it's been very difficult for

Secretary Tillerson to preside over

our global diplomatic effort with

that head wind in his face.

What do you make of

the way this was all

handled, this firing?

I'm concerned that the

President may have been

acting more out of the instincts

he adopted in ten years of presiding

over a reality TV show,

where the ultimate end

was to have him point at somebody

and yell, "You're fired"

in order to win a TV audience,

rather than a more measured,

appropriate, disciplined process

by which he could have transitioned

from Secretary of State Tillerson

to his now nominee, CIA

Director Pompeo.

This is not a matter

of commanding a global TV

attention, this is a matter

of concern to our allies and

encouragement to our enemies

when the President fails to stand up

to Russian aggression,

particularly

Russian aggression that has

so directly impacted one of our most

vital allies on earth,

the United Kingdom.

So let's talk about Mike Pompeo

who is going to replace,

assuming he is confirmed,

Rex Tillerson, as the new American

Secretary of State,

what changes in American

policy when Mike Pompeo

is

running the Department of State?

You have mentioned Moscow,

he is pretty hawkish

when it comes to Russia.

The other area where

he is noticeably

more hawkish than Rex Tillerson

on is the question of Iran and the

nuclear deal.

What happens now?

Well my concern is that Secretary

of State Tillerson was well known

to have had tensions with President

Trump over his urging that we stay

in the Iran deal and work with our

European allies to improve it

or to address Iran's aggressive

behaviour in the region.

I'm concerned that the

CIA Director Pompeo

may encourage President Trump's

instincts borne of his campaign to

tear up this deal, rather

than embracing the very real

benefit we have seen.

I think frankly given

the window we are in, where we

are trying to negotiate some

resolution with North Korea of their

even more aggressive nuclear weapons

programme that we have to be

attentive to how Kim Jong-un, the

dictator of North Korea,

sees our handling of the Iran deal

negotiated by the previous

administration here

in the United States,

with our core European

allies as well as North

Korea and Russia.

Senator Coons, thank you.

I can tell you the world

is watching all of this with

fascination.

Unprecedented for a Secretary of

State to be sacked so early in his

role. As you were saying,

humiliating for a man who was

reluctant to take the job in the

first place.

And with us now is our political

analyst Ron Christie.

Clear he he didn't know this was

coming and neither did his staff. I

know because last week his

under-Secretary of state was in

London and we talked about Rex

Tillerson, listen to that interview.

How can your allies depend that

Secretary Tillerson will be there

and this stewardship of the policies

you're setting out?

He will be here.

I know there was a time last year

when people referred to the

Secretary of State as Rexit, a take

off on Brexit, in the belief he was

leaving. He was never leaving. I

would like to put that part to bed

and let people know he is the

Secretary of Stay.

Well he is not

staying and neither is Steve

Goldstein. He said today he hadn't

spoken with President Trump and he

didn't know the reasons and he was

subsequently fired for putting out a

statement that contradicted the

White House. What does this tell us

about the way the White House is

run?

Good evening, I think this is

shocking to be Hon egs. The

Secretary of State is the most

senior diplomat in the President's

cabinet, the first person who held

the job was Thomas Jefferson. The

fact he found out by Twitter

indicates it was an impulsive

decision. You don't treat your chief

diplomat that way. What signal does

that say to the people around the

world?

There were a lot of

disagreements, they didn't agree on

Iran and Saudi Arabia and North

Korea and you have the situation

where the President decides to sit

down with Kim Jong-un while the

Secretary of State is in Africa. But

what do you make of the Russia

angle? In the last 24 hours, Rex

Tillerson said we are outraged that

Russia appears to have involved its

in the poisoning in the UK. At odds

with what Sarah Sanders said in the

briefing room?

Interesting that the

Secretary of State stood shoulder to

should we are Theresa May and our

allies, so what the President should

have said. It doesn't surprised me,

I think the President thought

Tillerson can't get out saying

things like that, I'm the president,

he works for me. I think Donald

Trump does not want anyone who will

challenge his authority.

I would go

further and say this was chaotic at

the beginning, look at the way this

was done, it looks like the

president wanted to fire him last

Friday without even telling him at

all. No notification. No phone call.

He just wanted Tillerson to read it

on Twitter. There is almost a form

of cruelty in that.

You're right,

and look all the way back when of

course President Trump was

considering mitt Romney to be head

of state, I think what President

Trump did was hue mailiating and we

saw how Tillerson looked humiliated.

He did this on a world stage and I

think it was a shabby thing for him

to have done.

Thank you. This would

not have happened in the Bush or the

Obama or the Clinton White House.

Let's talk about Gina Haspel who,

will take over at the CIA, the first

female. Not an easy confirmation I

guess.

No, they like her in the

agent circumstances he -- agency.

There will be a sigh of relief that

they have one of their own running

the administration when the Trump

administration has a difficult

relationship with the intelligence

community. But she has baggage to go

into the confirmation hearings,

particularly around terrorism and

torture. She over saw one of

America's black sites during the

Bush administration in Thailand,

where terrorist suspects were water

board. She has been involved in will

there was a cover up around video

tape and what happened to the tape

of the sessions of water boarding.

That already is being raised by some

Senators and it will come up an as

objection. But she also might do a

great job, but she has to know she

could be fired at the drop of a

tweet.

One issue.

As we have just

learned...

One of the thorny issues

she will face is Russia and we know

what the President's attitudes are

to Russia. What about Theresa May,

she has a range of options she can

use to retaliate against Moscow for

the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and

his daughter. One is apparent lay

boycott of World Cup and the

expulsion from Britain of

broadcaster Russia Today. Moscow

said not a single media outlet would

be allowed to operate in Russia if

the Prime Minister followed through.

Yes, today there were expressions of

solidarity in the EU and finally

from President Trump. But can

Britain count on its closest allies.

Here is James Landale.

It began as a brutal attack

on the streets of Salisbury,

the poisoning of a former Russian

intelligence

officer and his daughter,

that the UK blames on Russia.

But it's become a global

diplomatic row, with Britain

looking for allies in its

confrontation with Moscow.

British ministers

meeting again to discuss

the case have given the Kremlin

until midnight to explain how a

nerve agent developed in Russia

ended up in Britain.

If the response is implausible,

they are promising

extensive measures against Russia.

This is a brazen attempt to murder

innocent people on UK soil.

Policemen still in hospital,

overwhelmingly likely or highly

likely the Russian state was

involved, and the use of this nerve

agent would represent

the first use of nerve

agents on the continent

of

Europe since the Second World War.

As part of a huge diplomatic effort

across Europe, British officials

told the chemicals

weapon watchdog that

Russia was implicated

in the

use of chemical weapons.

Germany, France and

other allies offered

support without attributing blame,

but Donald Trump at least appeared

to accept Russia might be involved.

Theresa May is going to be

speaking to me today.

It sounds to me like they believe

it was Russia and I

would certainly take

that finding as fact.

As soon as we get the facts

straight, if we agree with them, we

will condemn Russia

or whoever it may be.

Russia is already

subject to sanctions.

Ministers insist these damage

Russia's economy but their

impact on behaviour is doubtful.

Crucially these are largely EU

sanctions, the UK cannot impose them

on its own.

So what unilateral

options is the Government

considering?

Some of Russia's 58

diplomats in London could be

expelled but that might promote

a tit for tat expulsion.

Russians could face

travel bans, but who and

how?

There could be tougher laws to crack

down on Russian officials

guilty of human rights abuses,

and Russian television stations

like RT could be targeted.

Here at the Foreign

Office, they are also

investing a lot of effort

and diplomacy in trying to bring

international pressure to bear

on Russia but the bar is high.

Russia has a veto

at the UN and some EU

countries are reluctant

to contemplate yet more sanctions.

To date, the Russian Embassy said

accusations of involvement in the

Salisbury attack were groundless

as diplomats promised retaliation

against any new sanctions.

Russia is not a country

to be spoken to in the

language of ultimatums.

I think it is high time

the UK learned that.

But unless Moscow gives Britain

a satisfactory answer by midnight,

some Russian diplomats here might be

clearing their desks very soon.

Meanwhile London police have

begun an investigation

into the 'unexplained' death

of Nikolai Grushkov, a Russian,

who was found dead in Kingston,

London

on Monday evening.

Mr Gruchkov, a former

Aeroflot executive was tried

in absentia in Russia,

and was a business partner

of Boris Berezovsky,

the Russian oligarch who was found

hanged in his Surrey home in 2013.

Scotland Yard has stressed

there is no evidence to suggest

there was any link to the poisoning

of Sergei Skripal.

The Home Secretary, Amber Rudd,

has also announced today that

a string of deaths in Britain

in which there was suspicion

of Russian involvement,

will be looked at again by police

and MI5.

It follows an invesigation

by the news website BuzzFeed

into 14 suspicious deaths.

Heidi Blake is the Investigations

Editor for BuzzFeed.

Welcome. A growing list of Russian

opponents who die in mysterious

circumstances and Boris Berezovsky

was one. Why do you think we should

look again at that particular death?

Well Boris Berezovsky was one of a

group of nine oligarchs who helped

get money from Russia after a wave

of dissidents and exiles came to the

UK under Vladimir Putin. There are

nine of the men who died in

suspicious circumstances. Boris

Berezovsky is just one. In all of

the cases and in five others that we

investigated...

There was no sign of

a struggle with Boris Berezovsky.

Why do you think it needs to be

looked at.

Well he was found hanged

from his own shower rail. The marks

were not consistent with the sorts

of marks you get in a hanging A

pathologist said they were

consistent with strangulation of

the. And he had a broken rib. There

were fingerprints found. He was

known to be the target of previous

assassination attempts ordered by

the Russian state. We think it is

sufficient to investigate his death

and the others of people surrounding

him.

You have spent a lot of time

investigating the unexplained deaths

of Russians in London. What do you

make of today's news, do you think

that Mr Glushakov's death sounds

suspicious.

Well he was part of the

group of Russian exiles, many of who

have died in mysterious

circumstances. He was close to Boris

Berezovsky and another of the 14

people who died suspiciously in

Britain after angering the Kremlin.

We know he has accused the Kremlin

of being involved in the death of

his friends and he was continuing to

investigate their deaths. So I think

it is appropriate that counter

terror police become involved in

that investigation. They can

hopefully conduct all the

appropriate tests and make sure the

investigation is conducted properly

and maybe we will get a better

conclusion in this investigation

than in the 14 hoers that we have

investigated.

Can I ask you about

comments from the Russian Foreign

Ministry in connection with Sergei

Skripal's poisoning. The two lines,

particularly one they would

retaliate against all British

journalists in Moscow if RT is shut

and the threat of don't mess with a

nuclear power. What do you think of

that.

That is why the British

Government has been reticent to

respond before. I have been talking

to people in the British Government

and they tell me Britain is scared

of Russia and Russia is a nuclear

power with extensive capabilities

and are prepared to respond to any

retaliation by the British

Government and could shut out every

British journalist from Russia if

Britain shuts down one Russian

propaganda arm. Britain is scared of

moves Russia could make. I think

here by unleashing a chemical

weapons attack that may have

affected hundreds of members of

public, Russia has crossed a

threshold and it is not possible or

the the British Government to ignore

this.

Thank you.

We need three hours for this

programme today. There is so much.

Now many of us have journals

where we write down our feelings

but for seven-year-old Noah Orion -

the pages became a place to express

himself when his mother

was sick with cancer.

When she died last fall his drawings

became a way to express his grief.

Now it's being made into a book -

with the proceeds being

used to help others.

The BBC's been speaking

to Noah about the project.

It's a book where you express your

feelings about each day you have.

How is that?

Too high?

I was like, how could

I make a book where I

could just just do the title,

like one of those journals.

Noah created this

journal, it was totally

an idea he came up with on his own.

There was a good day's version

and a bad day's version.

A bad day would be like

when something goes wrong.

And good days are basically

holidays, winning video games.

But if you can't

find a good day or a

bad day in their day,

you don't really have

to write about that day.

About five years ago Sandy

was diagnosed with breast cancer.

She was diagnosed at stage 4.

Who is Sandy?

My mom.

She was a real trooper

when we found out.

I mean she went camping

with us one time.

We have always had a conversation

in our family about how

it is important to talk

about your feelings, or write

it down.

When Sandy started to get sicker,

it was something we talked

about a lot.

Dad saw me with this

and he was, "That's awesome, dude."

I really wanted to show Noah

that his bright idea could

help people.

Noah said something to me today that

I thought was great, he

said, "I want people

to know they they can make

a difference and they can help,

even if they're only

seven years old."

I thought that was

really a sweet thing.

I feel awesome that I could

contribute, help them

to not have the same thing

that we went through.

I know his mum would be

so proud of what he has

accomplished.

I know she would be really proud

of what he is doing.

So sad what Noah has been flu and

good for him for trying to help

other people.

This is Beyond 100

Days from the BBC.

Coming up for viewers on the BBC

News Channel and BBC World News -

will Russia respond to Theresa May's

midnight diplomatic deadline,

as the UK demands an explanation

over the poisoning of a former spy

in southern England?

And sun, surf and security -

Donald Trump makes his first trip

to California as President,

where he's looking at

prototypes for a border wall.

That's still to come.

There are some changes on the way

for tonight into tomorrow. Today was

a lovely spring day. Sunshine across

the country. There was some cloud as

you can see from our weather watcher

pictures. The showers that we had

faded away. We have some clear

skies, light winds and temperatures

will fall away tonight. The wind's

picking up, blowing in more cloud

with rain later in Cornwall and

Northern Ireland. Ahead of it we

will find temperatures falling close

to freezing. In Scotland and

northern England all the way down to

the northern home counties. For

Wednesday this area of low pressure

will rotate to the west of the UK.

And push ahead these bands of cloud

and rain. The western side that sees

the rain on Wednesday. Ahead of it

we are drawing air from Spain. A

mild wind picking up during the day.

It will be a breezy day. For central

and eastern parts dry with sunshine.

The stronger winds will be where we

have the thicker cloud and rain to

the west. Gales likely to the South

West of England and around the coast

and hill and rain through much of

the afternoon across the South West,

spilling up to Wales, heading north

in the afternoon. The winds picking

up through the Irish Sea and some

rain for much of the day for

Northern Ireland, clipping the South

West of Scotland and arriving back

into the Western Isles. But plenty

of sunshine around the Moray Firth

and the Society east of England --

south-east of England and

temperatures up to 14. For Thursday

the rain will move, not away from

Northern Ireland, but moving north

and behind it sunshine but some

heavy showers. Here in the South

West temperatures around 12 degrees.

But to the north of the rain belt it

is colder in Scotland and the

north-east of England and it will

get colder. That rain band moves

north and then stops, the showers

continue towards the south and any

showers in Scotland turning wintry.

We pick up an easterly wind. It will

feel cold with some snow in the

south. And in the east.

This is Beyond One

Hundred Days, with me

Katty Kay in Washington -

Christian Fraser's in London.

Our top stories.

Donald Trump fires his

Secretary of State,

Rex Tillerson, replacing him

with CIA chief, Mike Pompeo.

One Democratic Senator tells us,

this is no way to run a White House.

The president may have been acting

more out of the instincts he adopted

in ten years of presiding over

a reality TV show where the ultimate

aim was to have him point at someone

and yell, you're fired.

Moscow says it will

ignore an ultimatum

from Britain to explain how a former

Russian double agent

was poisoned in the UK

with a Soviet-era nerve agent.

We'll have more on both of those

stories in a moment -

also coming up in

the next half hour.

Trump travels to California

for his first visit

as president, to look at prototypes

of the wall he wants to build

on the Mexican border.

Amazing pictures from

Patagonia - the Argentine

glacier that collapses,

then reforms - we've

more to show you.

Let us know your thoughts

by using the hashtag

'Beyond-One-Hundred-Days'.

Let's return to our top story

In the biggest shake-up

of his Cabinet since taking office,

Donald Trump has sacked his

Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson,

following a series of public

disagreements between the two men.

Rex Tillerson is the twentieth

member of Mr Trump's

cabinet to lose their job,

or resign, since the President took

office fourteen months ago.

The director of the CIA,

Mike Pompeo, has been named

as Mr Tillerson's replacement,

while Gina Haspel becomes

the first woman to lead

the intelligence agency.

What do we know about what was that

tipping point that fully - that

finally pushed at Rex Tillerson.

I

remember when the rumours were

swirling late last year we thought

it was imminent and then at the

start of the New Year we felt a

corner had been turned and Rex

Tillerson had found his feet and he

embarked on all of these trips and

policy initiatives. And he told us

that he would be around for the year

of the Sophie was digging in perhaps

banking on this fact but Donald

Trump does not like to fire people

directly. But for the tipping point,

Rex Tillerson got a call on Friday

from the Chief of staff John Kelly

to let him something was up. And

this happened shortly after Donald

Trump decided to meet the North

Korean leader. So White House

officials saying that he wanted to

make a break, he wanted to get a new

team in place in time to run those

negotiations anti-trust and likes

Mike Pompeo, he is more aligned in

terms of policy and he decided then

to move at this point. Coming back

on the plane Rex Tillerson was also

outspoken about Russia, he has

always been more radical of Russia

than Donald Trump to put it mildly.

But he was very outspoken on the

plane coming back and that may have

tipped the scales in terms of the

timing. I think Donald Trump had

already made up his mind. But no

doubt it was a shock wave that it

was done and the timing as well.

Just a few hours after Rex Tillerson

landed after coming back from

Africa.

Mike Pompeo has been more

tactful when it comes to Russia even

though he seems to be siding with

Rex Tillerson. Saying that they are

interfering not just in the last

election but in the run-up to the

midterms. But he is more hawkish

when it comes to Iran and North

Korea.

As head of the CIA he has

said we have evidence that Russia is

meddling and will medal again

probably in the midterms. So he has

taken a much stronger stance than

Donald Trump. But less strong than

Rex Tillerson. So he is in between.

But in terms of the other policy

issues, Iran, he said that we have

differences on Iran with Rex

Tillerson. The reality of that was

Cabinet secretaries had told them

not to pull out of the Iran deal.

But Mike Pompeo is going to be

overseeing backfile now. He's known

to be more a hawk on Iran.

Let's speak to William Cohen

who served as Secretary of Defense

under President Clinton.

Can you give us some sense of the

importance of the role of Secretary

of State, how much does a change in

that role reflects a change in

American policy.

It really depends

on the president. What kind of

delegation of authority the

president gives to his Secretary of

State. But from the beginning it was

cleared Donald Trump did not give

full authority to Rex Tillerson. And

that was indicative from the very

beginning, they had disagreements of

a variety of issues. Their styles

are different, Rex Tillerson comes

from the corporate world where there

is a process that present tramp

comes from his own world where there

is no process but more of a chaotic

environment with decisions being

made on impulse without great

consequence given to the result.

And

the relationship between the

Secretary of State and secondary

defence, we understand Rex Tillerson

had a good relationship with the

Secretary of Defence. How much does

that relationship matter?

It is very

important, state and defence

sometimes disagree on major issues

and it is important that the

Secretary of Defence and state work

together. But in this case I think

Mike Pompeo will work very well with

defence. I do not think there will

be any big difference of opinion.

There may be some difference in

style in terms of how they go about

resolving any differences they might

have.

You said it depends on the

president, and their relationship

with the Secretary of State. But

that tweet he said to Rex Tillerson,

he's wasting his time trying to

negotiate with little rocket man.

But then he said he would talk to

the North Korean President. He does

not really want to listen to the

candour of his Secretary of State,

he wants to do it himself?

Well Rex

Tillerson was promoting negotiation

to try to get to the table with the

North Korean. And you have president

moon of South Korea asking for

negotiations. Present tramp called

him an appeaser. And then he

undercut Rex Tillerson I think

you're wasting your time with little

rocket man. Again it shows the

volatility and lack of real

continuity in terms of thinking and

action put up and in this case it

was clear that secretary Rex

Tillerson was not going to have a

long lasting literature with the

president. But what is surprising is

the manner in which it was done,

without any great class or grace. He

could have said we're just having

too many differences and I would

like you to submit your resignation.

But instead he waited until he was

out of the country and then fired

him. Now Rex Tillerson apparently

wants to stay on but usually you

have an agreement to stay on for a

couple of weeks but Dean fired with

the undercut durability to carry out

any functions.

Thank you very much.

If ever we have a disagreement and

one of us has to leave the show I

will tell you in person, Christian.

It will not be done on twitter, that

is not the way to get rid of

someone. I think this one issue

about Mike Pompeo, he is very much a

political person and tied this

president. Willie play the role of

standing up to Donald Trump and

disagreeing with him when he feels

that there are policy issues between

them. I'm a bit more sceptical about

that. The president is in California

now, he asked the builders to create

some physically imposing structures

for his proposed border wall. He is

looking about how to type, there are

in fact eight of them and it will

cover 360 miles of the border. That

is one of them, all different shapes

and sizes. I have been looking at

the pictures from the other side and

quite a number of Mexicans on the

other side protesting with banners.

And just on the other side the

Secret Service keeping a wily eye on

the Mexicans who have come to

protest about it. And by the way he

still does not have the money for

that wall.

Returning now to the

Russian spy story.

And the Russian government has,

once again, denied being involved.

Russia's foreign minister says

Britain isn't letting

the Kremlin see the evidence

of the nerve agent attack,

as required under international law.

From Moscow, here's Sarah Rainsford.

Today we saw the British

ambassador called into

the foreign ministry here.

He said he came to give

the message from Theresa May

that the ultimatum was approaching,

that Britain expects some answers.

The foreign ministry, though,

said he came to hear the Russian

protest against what Russia calls

a sordid attempt to

discredit this country.

So strong language coming

from Moscow and the strongest we've

heard yet coming from the Minister

himself Sergey Lavrov.

He has essentially rejected

the deadline, he said Britain

is violating the chemical weapons

Convention by only giving Russia 24

hours to respond to the allegation

of a chemical attack.

He says there should be

ten days to respond.

So unless Russia, unless the UK

sticks to the rules than Russia has

no intention of doing so either

was pretty much the message

from Sergey Lavrov.

When I asked him directly

whether Russia was responsible

for this attack he said

that was nonsense and Russia had

nothing to do with it.

And we've heard as well

from his spokeswoman a little later

today with even stronger

language, she said today

who does Britain think

it is issuing ultimatums

to a nuclear power.

So worrying language

from here in Moscow and no sign

at all I think of Russia either

meeting the deadline or backing down

on its stance over this attack.

So it seems another rupture in

relations between the UK and Russia

by midnight.

Joining us now is John Bayliss -

who worked for Britain's electronic

intelligence agency for almost four

decades - and now lectures

on security threats.

When we get something like the

Sergei Skripal case will focus on

how many spies there are in the UK.

How does it compare to the height of

the Cold War do you think?

I would

say there are more spies now than at

the height of the Cold War. I think

we are looking at travelling

somewhere between 40 and 50.

Difficult to put an exact figure on.

The thing about spying is that

funnily enough we tell the Russians

how many spies we have a Moscow, we

do not call them spies but

intelligence officers and they

basically tell us how many

intelligence officers they have in

London and the tricky bit is working

out who is an intelligence officer

that they are not admitting to.

I

read about one Russian businessman

who knows that he's been followed

because he looks outside the shop

that he runs in London and some

locals were eating sunflower seeds

which Russian people from the

countryside he does well and quite

brazen in the fact that they were

watching him. What happens for the

spies here, do we follow them around

or how does that work.

Well I think

that in the day of the Cold War they

were restricted on their movements.

I think that has lapsed almost

completely now and they have fairly

free movement. Some of the people we

know about will probably be

followed. But there are too many of

them, we do not have enough people

any more to do that kind of thing.

We concentrate on terrorism and that

is where the bulk of the effort will

go almost certainly.

What are the

retaliatory options with UK, you

work that GCHQ and you understand

the cyber options. The risk could be

a trade war with perhaps unintended

consequences and presumably the

Russians would hit back in any kind

of cyber attack.

I think they are

already hitting, not hitting back

because they've been doing it more

than we have I would say. They would

be an option I'm quite sure to do

that but as you say where does it

end.

You think we need to get

tougher?

We probably do but what are

the options, I mean there are

sanctions, expelling diplomats, not

sending people to the football,

those are the kind of options you

have. There are limited options that

we have that we can bring into play.

Very good to talk to you, thank you.

Some surprising things, more spies

than at the height of the Cold War

and the options not great. England

are not going to the World Cup.

Maybe they would have been coming up

early anyway!

President Trump is

making his first visit

to California today -

there's not much love lost

between the White House

and the very Democratic state.

Politicians there are leading

the fight against the President's

policies, on everything from climate

change to immigration.

Last week, the administration filed

a lawsuit saying California

is saying its protections to illega

immigrants are unconstitutional.

Today the President tweeted:

Thousands of dangerous & violent

criminal aliens are released

as a result of sanctuary

policies, set free to prey

on innocent Americans.

THIS MUST STOP!

This trip Mr Trump

will examine eight

prototypes for a border wall.

A short time ago, I spoke

to California Attorney General

Xavier Becerra from Los Angeles.

Your state has the biggest economy

in the US. Is it strange that it has

taken the president this long to

visit California gas mark if you go

by past experience it definitely is

because most presidents from

Rosenfeld forward have always made

an effort to visit California and

not just early but often.

I'm not

sure why Donald Trump has waited so

long since you could learn so much

about what makes a nation

successful. Blah but only the

economic engine for the country but

the sixth largest economy in the

world close to passing Great Britain

is the fifth economic power in the

world.

Well maybe it is because you

are afraid democratic state and seen

by the supporters of Donald Trump is

the hotbed of the political

resistance in this country. He does

not like the politics of California,

as simple as that restaurant may be

is that he talks and we act, he

talks success and we show success.

All I know is that California

creates more jobs than any other

state, we are number one in

manufacturing, agriculture,

high-technology, hospitality,

entertainment. We graduate more

people from college than any other

state in the nation, a pretty good

record of success that I would hope

that every state would want to

emulate.

Are you concerned that the

president has the capacity to hit

back against Europe economic success

whether it is by building a wall

with Mexico, and he is looking older

types today over there by taking

action against Californian cities,

so-called sanctuary cities that

protect undocumented people living

in the country.

I believe that the

law will be on our side and not just

history, but the law. And I count on

the law and the institutions we have

in this country are strong. I

believe they can withstand the winds

from Washington, DC and Donald Trump

can say what he likes, it is whether

the federal government has the right

to do these things. So we will see

Donald Trump" whether on the border

wall for his attempts to coerce the

state of California to do his

bidding on immigration. We're not in

the business of deportation but of

public safety. And we are prepared

to abide by the law and that the

institutions of government prove how

and when Donald Trump can act.

You

say you're prepared to fight back

against some of the things that the

president is proposing, clamping

down on people who are in the

country illegally and particularly

on the prospect of building a wall.

But he is the President, what can

you do about that?

Well we cannot

stop him from doing those things

that fall within the province of the

federal government. We recognise

that. Immigration enforcement is a

federal responsibility but even with

immigration enforcement you must do

it according to the Constitution and

when Donald Trump tries to violate

peoples constitutional rights week

can step in and we have. And far

with proven that on many occasions

Donald Trump has violated the very

laws that he is supposed to enforce.

Dreamers, individuals, waiting for

status, one Donald Trump decided to

deport them, they're still here and

in fact the programme remains in

effect because of the court

challenge which instituted and we

got a nationwide injunction to stop

him from terminating the programme.

We'll see where we go on the border

wall for the but we will do what we

can to defend the rights of the

people of California and see where

that goes.

This is Beyond One Hundred Days.

Still to come.

What can I do for you.

Disney's new film

A Wrinkle in Time -

why it's a bittersweet moment

for the black woman who directed it.

Here, the Chancellor Philip Hammond

delivered an upbeat

assessment of the UK economy,

claiming there's "light at the end

of the tunnel" and hinting

at possible public spending

increases in the Autumn.

Mr Hammond delivered his Spring

statement saying growth

and employment were up -

but Labour accused the Chancellor

of ignoring a public

sector funding crisis.

Here's Laura Kuennsberg.

Is there anybody out there?

Number Eleven didn't want us to pay

that much attention.

No fuss, no frills.

REPORTER:

Do you have good

news today, Chancellor?

Only the Chancellor

slipping off to work.

But what was this, a cheery

Philip Hammond rushing to his place?

If there are any Eeyores

in the chamber, they're over there.

I, meanwhile, am at my most

positively Tigger-like today.

Not much has changed

from the world outside.

True, the economy will grow

a little bit faster.

The debt will start to fall, just.

The day-to-day deficit,

remember that, it's gone.

But compared to other countries,

the economy is sluggish and slow.

Spending will stay stay tight.

I do not agree with those who argue

that every available penny must be

used to reduce the deficit.

And nor do I agree with the fantasts

opposite who argue that every

available penny should

be spent immediately.

But Labour accused him of not

being in the real world.

Hasn't he listened to the doctors,

the nurses, the teachers,

the police officers,

the carers and even his own

councillors, they're telling him

they can't wait for the next budget.

They're telling him to act now.

Hard choices that will

linger long after today.

Along with the Brexit

bill, revealed to be

hanging around until 2064.

Spring has not yet really sprung.

Laura Kuenssberg, BBC

News, Westminster.

You're watching

Beyond One Hundred Days.

"Bittersweet" - that's how

the director of the new Disney film,

A Wrinkle in Time has described

becoming one of the first

African American directors to hold

a top spot at the U.S Box Office.

Ava Duvernay says "it's sad"

its only happened in 2018

after more than a century

of the industry existing.

Our reporter Chi Chi Izundu sat down

with her to discuss race,

inclusion and Times Up.

Your father has accomplished

something extraordinary.

Based on the 1962 fantasy

novel, a Wrinkle in

Time tells the story of a young

teenage girl whose

scientist father goes missing

and it's down to her to find

him and save the universe.

The only one who can stop it.

Is you.

Wrinkle holds the No 2 spot

at the US box office.

Start over.

And burn it all.

In at No 1 is the Marvel

epic Black Panther -

which has also just

surpassed the billion

dollar mark worldwide.

To the rest of the world.

Plus, it is the first

time in history that

two black directors

with

budgets over $100 million have ever

taken the top two spots at the

box office.

An achievement the Wrinkle director,

Ava DuVernay, has described

as bitter sweet.

They're amazing women

throughout history of cinema

who were black women, women

of colour, who should have had those

opportunities, but Hollywood

and the industry didn't give them

opportunities, so because Hollywood

has decided to give me the

opportunity, it doesn't have

to do anything with me.

It has to do with the time.

So it is bitter sweet when we hear

about these firsts happening

in 2018.

Do you think Hollywood's changed

towards people of colour

being forefront and centre of film?

Changing, not changed.

That is not the case.

But changing, I hope so.

That hope is turning into a reality.

Since the start of her career,

Ava DuVernay has insisted on a

diverse cast and crew.

Something other production

houses and actors

are now actively including

in their contracts.

A glacier arch in

Argentina has collapsed -

but this time it's not due

to climate change.

It's part of a cycle and means

tourists can see the spectacle

of huge chunks of ice falling off

the glacier every few years.

Let's take a look.

The Perito Moreno glacier.

It is like a video being rewound.

So I was having a look

through Twitter and found this -

taken at a chocolate factory.

Trump Junior apparent being

interviewed by some very serious

chocolate bunny reporters.

Trump Jr

was at Sarris Candies in Canonsburg,

Pennsylvania, for a campaign

stop with Rick Saccone,

the Republican congressional

candidate for Tuesday's special

election in Pennsylvania's 18th

District.

And he has responded in part.

President Trump's eldest son

appreciated the joke,

retweeting Rush's photo

and adding his own quip.

"The chocolate rabbit gave

a hard hitting interview

and was delicious

afterwards," Trump Jr

tweeted.

One of those really boring news

days! We will see you back here

tomorrow.